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Forum:2007-09-26. Arnold's Personality, by BBethel66
BBethel66, 9/26/2007 6:24 AM :I'm a new member here, and I've kept up with Hey Arnold! from the day it premiered in 1996 to the day it ended in 2004. One concern I've had for the show as it went on was how Arnold became somewhat bland. In the earliest episodes, Arnold was a more direct reflection of his original introspective personality, as the claymation shorts and Simpsons illustrated comics were suggesting. In fact, Arnold sort of served as a compass for the entire show, which began as a very colorful urban adventure series. One of the most interesting Nick concepts at the time. But by the second year, all of that mystique that came with the urban lifestyle had quickly faded. Urban legends became less frequent. The colorful dream sequences were less colorful. Many interesting characters were traded for less interesting characters. Most of the energy had become focused on Helga's unhealthy crush on Arnold, as well as her increasingly psychotic interaction with others. It got old and repetitive very quickly (I myself was hoping for it to end before the second year began), and reflected the show's digression into an elementary school drama, up to its third season. Don't mistake this as a complete loss of creativity. The show did still tackle many personal issues that helped retain some of its Peanuts influence. The best example was the episode where Arnold begins learning the truth about his parents, and how he realized even though his grandparents aren't his actual parents, they still taught him how to fly. There were also a couple genuinely funny episodes I still recall. As for Arnold, everything we were introduced to from the first year was gone. While he wasn't too afraid to play hooky and sneak into theatres in the first year, he was literally haunting Helga, Phoebe, et al for minor missteps by the third and fourth years. They even had a fourth season episode where the gang rips on him for being a busybody. I don't know if this was a personal creative choice or pressure from the suits, etc., I liked Arnold better when he had the adventurous edge. Again, it reflected the original theme of the series, and made everything more interesting and versatile. He started to regain some adventure with the movie, and the last couple episodes, but by then, the show was cancelled. If Arnold kept his adventurous side all along, the show would've been the best Nicktoon ever made, along side Ren & Stimpy, Rocko, Doug, Classic Rugrats, and SpongeBob. ---- Mokichan_8000, 9/26/2007 6:37 AM :It's too late for me to give an in-depth response on what you've just wrote - all I'll say is that you're preaching to the choir. ---- Cool, 9/27/2007 4:07 AM :It's not too late for me, but I just got over a fever that put me bed ridden for 1 and a half days. This has all been said before, this is just with different words. I am glad though others finally see what I saw so early on even when I first started watching the show in 2001 - Arnold's changing character. I'd rant on somemore, but I've already repeated myself so much on this subject over the years. He changed. It sucks where he went because Arnold has potential. He came back to life in the final three episodes made after the movie, but by then it was too little too late. Must sleep. I got a poundin headache from only sleeping two hours. Stephen ---- Lilchamor, 9/30/2007 4:01 AM :Experiences can't change people? One of my favorite quotes, from Arnold, at the end of "Cool Jerk", Season one: "Gerald, if I ever do anything like that again, drop a piano on my head." My point is that yes, he did do some "bad" things in season one, like playing hooky, sneak into theaters, and hang out with the tough crowd. But none of those experiences ended pleasantly. (Arnold and Gerald missed the surprise carnival day!) Every kid needs to live and learn. There's just a point, however, where you start to mature. Granted, it usually doesn't happen in a "year", like it did with Arnold. But it's a tv show, and we saw the kids for five seasons. No reason why they can't learn from their mistakes and mature a bit. I love season five Arnold, just because he's so different from the average kid. Yeah, I know I'm in the minority, but so what? ---- Manolo, 10/1/2007 4:39 AM :Hi Everyone! As Stephen has said, this is a discussion that we have seen in a lot of others threads, and I am truly sad about the loss of the "urban legends" setting in the last seasons of the show, but I want to say something that I was reminded somehow by the participation of Lilchamor. I remember the first time I saw "Stoop Kid", you know: the urban legend about a jerk who cannot let his stoop and for that is mocked by all the children in the neighborhood. As long as this happens, all very logic. But then, just when Arnold was passing by the stoop and heard Stoop Kid's sobs, he wanted to know what happened, and when Stoop Kid told him, Arnold wanted to help that poor guy. And that was the time I realized it. I realized that the show was about a good kid. A kid whom the problems of the other people were not indifferent. I think that if I have been in the same situation, I would have tried to confort him, but I would not have tought about offering him any solution, and Arnold did. I don't know how to express this without being sentimental, but that was the moment that Arnold, as a character, won my hearth: by showing me that there are caring and concious people in the world, not only kids who laughs at other's problems. I think that is the core of Arnold's character: to show us that there are other ways, other ways that our old, same ways. And if the show in the last seasons made a cliche of that is a shame, but it could have been worse things to happen to an animated show. I don't know if I you think the same, but for me, it's easy to forgive the writers of those last seasons doing a cliché about Arnold's ways. I'm sure Arnold will forgive them. Manolo